Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Ten Thousand Ripples project (see my July blog entry
“Creeped Out by Public Art”) had its inauguration last Wednesday and Molly, a
woman who’s been regularly attending our temple services and study classes,
brought me the brochure. Molly was concerned about how I was reacting to the
project since in our monthly Sutra Study class I brought it up and got everyone
riled up about the offensiveness of the cut-off heads of a Buddha image. Molly
then gently interjected that we shouldn’t let ourselves slide into a state of
outrage like the people rioting in Egypt and Libya over that anti-Muslim film.
When she brought me the brochure she told me the inauguration was all about
promoting peace in Chicago-area neighborhoods and especially about engaging
schoolchildren in fostering peaceful relations through art.

Today I looked over the brochure and had a meeting at Uptown
United with the artist and the Changing Worlds representatives. During the meeting
I realized I was feeling uneasy about reading and hearing the phrase “Buddha
head” tossed around and so I blurted out that as an Asian American, I find the
term derogatory. Growing up I often heard my parents say “buddhaheads” when
referring to their fellow second-generation Japanese Americans and I know
during the Second World War it was a term applied to the 442nd RCT soldiers
from Hawaii as opposed to the mainlanders, the “katonks.” But to hear
non-Asians use the term doesn’t sit right with me – what may be endearing
within a group, sounds demeaning coming from outside, maybe similar to how
women don’t mind their husbands calling them “honey” but they don’t want their
male bosses and co-workers addressing them that way.

I told the group it’s better to refer to the Buddha’s facial
expression of tranquility and not speak of the decapitated head as an icon of
peace. I’m glad that the revised publicity texts will emphasize the image as
the artist’s interpretation and take out the wording about “universal.” Everyone
is free to interpret an artwork in their own way, but it’s a mistake to think
that the great majority of people will see the image in only one particular
way. If most European- and African American people along with Christian Asian
Americans, such as the artist, see the image of the head as a symbol of peace,
that’s fine, but don’t promote that opinion as “universal” when there are those
of us who see the broken-off head as an evocation of plunder and disrespect.

The installation of the cut-off Buddha images all around our
temple’s neighborhood will be a challenge to me and the congregation to embody
the Buddhist teaching of non-attachment – that we can’t let ourselves get upset
when we see the sculptures being laughed at, sat on, kicked, defaced etc. etc.
It’s just an image and despite what it means to us, we know others will
interact with it as they feel. It’s the Buddha’s words and actions that will
continue to teach us – that is what we value, not any graphic depiction of a
particular person.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Politics is a dirty business, but according to our Buddhist
teachers (such as Shuichi Maida in his commentary on the arson incident in
Goethe’s Faust), all business is
“defiled.” Even the most altruistic endeavor involves the taking of lives –
animal, plant and mineral – and/or wrongful speech (deception, withholding
facts etc.). Maybe only the monastics can claim to be living a pure life of ahimsa (non-violence) – assuming they
eat only vegetables and fruit that the plants willingly release.

Government is needed to keep order in our complicated community
lives, so someone has to run for office. A good dozen years ago, a
Polish-American member of our temple told me he wanted to run for alderman (for
you non-Chicagoans, the city is run by a council made up of ward
representatives called “aldermen”). He was going around his neighborhood to
collect signatures so he could get on the primary ballot. He told me about one
elderly lady who smiled and said he was a good Polish boy when he described his
deep roots in the community, having grown up there. Then she asked, “What
church do you go to?” As soon as he said “Buddhist Temple of Chicago,” the door
slammed shut in his face.

Now it’s not that much of a detriment to declare yourself a
Buddhist in elections. In the recent aldermanic elections, one of our temple
members, Emily, ran for alderman and noted her affiliation with our temple in
her campaign literature. She came in third so she didn’t make it to the run-off
but it was a good showing of support from the neighborhood around our temple.

Many of our temple members are and have been involved in
government and politics. I feel I can give them as individuals my support even
when those individuals may be on different sides of an issue or working to
promote a cause I don’t personally agree with. There’s no “Buddha is on our
side” advocacy on my part – I just want to be supportive of my fellow Buddhist
doing what he or she feels is important in our community life.

Yesterday we learned that someone who has been attending our
temple for many years is in the news in regards to his position in public
office. I don’t want to rush to judgment since there is probably a lot of
complicated history involved, but the person is in an “appearance of
impropriety” situation. We all know the media tends to hype things up so I
don’t want to depend only on what the news outlets are saying. It could be a
case of wanton corruption but my guess is that it’s more in the category of “I
thought it was okay because everyone else was doing it and no one was
complaining at the time.” It’s like when you find the newspaper vending box is
open and everyone is grabbing a paper for free – are you going to be the one
who sticks their quarter in first or are you thinking, “What’s twenty-five
cents? It’s the newspaper company’s fault for leaving the box open.” In public
office, the stakes are higher because the taxpayers end up paying to make up
the budget shortfalls. But when office holders fail to consider the burden they
create for taxpayers are they any different from any of us who help ourselves
to “freebies” when we know we shouldn’t? The cost of our “theft” gets passed on
to us eventually.

I haven’t reached out to this particular member yet but I
hope we see him sometime and hear how he’s dealing with the karmic causes and
conditions that are painting him as the bad guy.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

In my powerpoint presentation (see title slide below) I did
at the recent Eastern Buddhist League conference in Minnesota, I made the point
that after we get serious about a particular religious path, there is a phrase
of “sorting out” where it is necessary for us to cut ourselves off from the
influences of our previous way of life. To receive the message of spiritual
liberation from a particular religion, we need to dive in and not get
distracted and discouraged by those authoritative voices that formerly held
sway over us – whether it’s our parents pleading for us to return to the family
fold or a whole society telling us our heritage is inferior to the prevailing
culture.

Somewhat paradoxically, the deeper one goes into a spiritual
tradition, there arises the calling to go out and work together with people of
different religious allegiances. To me, an understanding of one’s own religion
is not complete unless it has a vision of inclusiveness, respecting and
defending the dignity of all people.

In Jodo Shinshu (“Shin” Pure Land Buddhism) there are many
people stuck in religious segregation. In Japan the Buddhist groups are
entrenched to the point of ridiculousness. We can’t help chuckling at
gatherings of Higashi Honganji in Kyoto when officials speak as if they’re the
only ones promoting Shinran’s teachings when we know that just a few blocks
away is the headquarters of Nishi Honganji. At American temples you hear too
much talk, sometimes coming from the ministers, denigrating not only the
Abrahamic faiths but all the other Buddhist sects.

In
researching the life of Malcolm X, I read (in Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning
Marable)how
through his immersion in Islam, he came to work with a wide range of civil
rights activists, respecting those who were secular, Christian and (shocking to
his former Nation of Islam cohorts) women. It made me come to feel that one
reason for Shinran’s return to Kyoto after spreading the nembutsu teachings in
the Kanto area was his desire to reconnect with the larger tradition of
Buddhism. Out in the countryside (of the area that would later develop around
Tokyo), he probably felt isolated from the deep soil of Buddhist transmission
from which the nembutsu blossomed. It’s just a theory of mine, but I think in
looking at Kyogyoshinsho and
Shinran’s other works, one can see a widening of his view from sectarian “Pure
Land” to true Maha-yana (“large vehicle”) Buddhism.

In Shinran’s place and time there wasn’t any opportunity to
meet non-Buddhists, but I think we can feel his appreciation of all lives
whenever we engage in dialog and work together with people outside of our
temple membership. I applaud the Twin Cities Buddhist Association for hosting
the interfaith panel (with Lutheran, Catholic, Muslim and Jewish spokemen) at
the Eastern Buddhist League conference and I hope more Jodo Shinshu groups help
their members appreciate the wider community of diverse faiths.